| Montreal, 11/08/2003 – The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) today released a factual record on allegations that Canada failed to effectively enforce the habitat protection provisions of the federal Fisheries Act and related provisions of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) in connection with a 40-km, private log haul road built by Sunpine Forest Products Ltd. through its forest management area in the Rocky Mountain foothills of west central Alberta in the late1990s. The CEC Council authorized the public release of this and two other factual records on 7 August 2003.
Sunpine's road was cited as an example in a citizen submission filed by Friends of the Oldman River with the CEC Secretariat in 1997. The submission claims that under a 1995 policy directive, federal authorities are issuing "letters of advice" to project proponents instead of Fisheries Act authorizations. Before issuing a Fisheries Act authorization, Fisheries and Oceans Canada must first ensure that a project is assessed under the CEAA to determine whether it is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects and if so, whether such effects are justifiable in the circumstances. The Submitter also claims that in practice, the federal government has abdicated its legal responsibilities for Fisheries Act enforcement to Canada's inland provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, as well as parts of British Columbia and Quebec), and that these provinces have not done a good job of ensuring compliance with or enforcing the Fisheries Act.
The final factual record for Submission SEM-97-006 (Oldman River II) contains facts relevant to a consideration of whether Canada is failing to effectively enforce the Fisheries Act habitat protection provisions and related provisions of the CEAA in regard to Sunpine's logging road. The factual record draws no conclusions as to whether Canada is failing to effectively enforce those laws.
At its discretion, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) did not participate in the decision to authorize Sunpine to build a new road for its log haul rather than use existing roads, and it did not participate in the selection of the corridor or the alignment for the logging road. Federal officials reviewed measures proposed by Sunpine to mitigate the road's impacts on fish habitat and concluded that no Fisheries Act authorization or CEAA environmental assessment was necessary. DFO did not take any action to ensure the implementation of those measures or verify their effectiveness. In September 1996, DFO issued letters of advice to Sunpine for two of twenty-one watercourse crossings included in the road project, listing measures required to mitigate impacts of two bridges on fish habitat.
This is the seventh factual record prepared by the CEC Secretariat. Factual records provide information that may assist submitters, a NAFTA country, and other interested members of the public in taking any action they deem appropriate in regard to the matters addressed.
The CEC was established by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental law. |
